Session: International Approaches to Stakeholder Research
The Fairness Dialogues Field Laboratory (FairLab)
Friday, October 13, 2023
8:00 AM – 9:15 AM ET
Location: Essex C (Fourth Floor)
The Fairness Dialogues Field Laboratory (FairLab), sprung from earlier work in Canada and currently under expansion in the United States, advances practice and science of deliberative methods to support a fair distribution of health, a fair health system, and a fair society. Questions of fairness and health are numerous. For example, is there personal responsibility for health, and if so, should our health system treat differently those who are responsible and those who are not? Should society allow medically-assisted death, and if so, should it be allowed when dysfunctional health and social systems are the reason for seeking it? Should resources be deployed to improve the overall health of a population, or should they be used preferentially to improve the health of those at highest risk due to social and economic circumstances? Answers to difficult fairness questions like these require collective and reflective exploration among all persons in society. The FairLab enables open dialogues among members of the public using rigorous methods of deliberation. Deliberations run by the FairLab focus on topics and questions within the scope of fairness and health. Each deliberation in the FairLab will always be methodologically evaluated. What we learn from deliberative dialogues can develop new ways to discuss difficult issues in the general population, articulate societal values, inform health policy, and/or provide insights into ongoing academic inquiries into fairness questions. The FairLab is a unique endeavor to engage members of the public in inclusive public dialogues as equal persons and will contribute to bioethical inquiries.
Marion Danis – Department of Bioethics, Clinical Center – National Institutes of Health; Scott Kim – Department of Bioethics, Clinical Center – National Institutes of Health; Julia Abelson – Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact – McMaster University; Erika Blacksher – NA – Center for Practical Bioethics; Marthe Gold – School of Medicine – The City College of New York